Recently, a device which cools a battery (secondary battery) mounted on a vehicle, for example, has been developed. JP 2011-222200A (Reference 1) discloses a device which cools a battery using a sorbent. In addition, JP2004-131034A (Reference 2) discloses a device which cools a battery using an ejector.
However, in the device of Reference 1, a problem occurred in that cooling is stopped if absorption by the sorbent ends and the cooling is difficult at the time of regeneration of sorbent. In addition, since the sorbent is cooled for recovering an exhaust energy of an engine having a high temperature in a vehicle, a separated heat storage medium with high-temperature resistance is necessary, and thus, the structure becomes complicated.
In addition, in the device disclosed in Reference 2, a vapor generation amount to be used in the ejector changes depending on an operation state of an engine. Accordingly, at the time of idling stop, or in a case of fluctuation of a load of the engine, there is a concern in that cooling capacity is fluctuated and it is difficult to continuously exhibit necessary cooling performance.
In addition, there is a concern in that a battery is difficult to exhibit good performance in a case of a low temperature, thus, it is necessary to heat the battery at the start of the car.
A need thus exists for an absorption type heat pump device which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.